Mu Mu had a fever!
Zhou Yue hurriedly picked up Zhou Mu and ran to the clinic.
“How can you call yourself a mother? The child’s temperature has reached 40°C! If this continues, she’ll end up with brain damage!” The female doctor’s gaze was extremely disapproving. “And what happened to this little girl’s face? Did you hit her?”
“I… I wasn’t home.” Zhou Yue didn’t dare meet the doctor’s suspicious eyes. “I brought her to the clinic as soon as I returned.”
“Better not be you. This child always comes in with serious injuries.” The female doctor clearly didn’t believe Zhou Yue’s explanation.
She remembered that about a year ago, this same little girl named Xiao Mu had been brought in by a neighbor with severe burns – huge blisters covering her feet. It seemed her mother had locked her at home without supervision.
As a mother herself, she couldn’t bear to see children suffer. She warned Zhou Yue, “You look like a decent, well-put-together woman. Child abuse is illegal, you know. Being a parent doesn’t give you the right to hit children.”
Zhou Yue bowed her head and endured the scolding, her feelings complicated.
Logically, seeing her own daughter being pampered by Yan Songyu while Yan Songyu’s daughter suffered under her care should have made her happy. Yet looking at Zhou Mu’s swollen face filled her with inexplicable irritation.
When Zhou Mu woke up, the doctor gently comforted her: “Sweetie, auntie applied some medicine. You’ll feel better soon, doesn’t it hurt less now?”
The ointment the doctor prescribed had anti-inflammatory and pain-relieving effects, but the green paste smeared on Zhou Mu’s face made her look even more pitiful.
“Thank you, doctor auntie!” Zhou Mu’s voice was soft and faint, like a kitten’s meow.
“You’re welcome, it’s my job.” The female doctor patted Zhou Mu’s head. “Can you tell auntie who hit you? I’ll call the police for you. Even parents aren’t allowed to hit children.”
As she spoke, she glanced at Zhou Yue, whose heart leaped into her throat.
Zhou Mu didn’t look at Zhou Yue or dare meet the doctor’s eyes. After a long pause, she stammered, “It was… an uncle I don’t know… outside.”
The doctor sighed at her evasive expression, patted her small hand, and left.
Watching the doctor’s retreating back, Zhou Mu silently whispered, “I’m sorry.”
After Zhou Mu’s fever subsided, Zhou Yue carried her home. Mother and daughter remained silent throughout the journey.
*
Feifei visited Jiang Chengli every day. Their usually cold father-daughter relationship had warmed considerably since his car accident.
This wasn’t the outcome Yan Songyu wanted. She didn’t want Feifei to have any expectations of Jiang Chengli as a father. Consequently, Jiang Chengli accidentally overheard the caretakers discussing his condition.
His left eye vision would never recover? His right leg was permanently crippled? His right hand could never hold a paintbrush again?
“You’re lying to me, aren’t you?” Jiang Chengli grabbed the caretaker’s shoulders like a madman, his expression frenzied. “You’re talking nonsense, right?”
“I’m supposed to become a master of traditional Chinese painting like Kong Lingqi!”
“Say you’re lying! Admit it now!”
The caretaker didn’t dare struggle too hard – if anything happened to the patient, he’d be finished. “Mr. Jiang, please calm down. We were just talking nonsense. The Yan Family is wealthy – you’ll definitely recover completely.”
While the caretaker was racking her brains to soothe him, Jiang Chengli suddenly collapsed—another caretaker had called a doctor who administered a sedative injection.
Yan Songyu held Feifei tightly as they entered the hospital room, her heart still racing with fear. “Good girl, don’t be scared. Mommy’s here.”
She clearly saw the terror in Feifei’s eyes, but there was nothing else she could do. She couldn’t let Feifei get close to Jiang Chengli—he wasn’t a good father, nor was he even a decent person.
After that day, Yan Songyu never took Feifei to the hospital again. Feifei never mentioned it either, as if she had forgotten all about Jiang Chengli.
“Feifei, are you changed yet? Uncle Feng is here to pick us up.”
On parent-teacher conference day, Yan Songyu wore the matching mother-daughter athletic outfits she had specially taken Feifei shopping for yesterday—a soft pink bunny set with long ears on the hoods.
“Coming!”
Feifei’s cheerful voice rang out as she quickly opened the door and twirled in front of Yan Songyu. “Mommy, do I look pretty?”
“Absolutely gorgeous!” Yan Songyu always went overboard in validating her daughter’s feelings. She imitated Feifei’s twirl. “Now look at Mommy—do I look pretty?”
Feifei nodded vigorously. “Mommy is the most beautiful mommy in the whole world!”
“Heh heh~” Feng Yu leaned against the doorframe chuckling. “Alright, you two most beautiful ladies, we’ll be late if we don’t leave now.”
Feng Yu was also wearing light gray athletic wear today. His usually slicked-back hair was left loose, with soft strands falling across his forehead that swayed gently as he moved. When Feng Yu smiled, all his sharp edges vanished, his imposing aura completely subdued—he looked like a sunny college student, exceptionally gentle.
Feifei couldn’t help praising him: “Uncle Feng, you look super handsome today too!”
Feng Yu picked Feifei up as they headed out. “Of course! I dressed up specially to match you two most beautiful ladies. Seems like it worked brilliantly.”
The final parent-teacher conference for the graduating class of Brilliant Star Kindergarten’s 07th cohort was particularly grand.
Zhou Yue had always kept close tabs on Feifei’s affairs and naturally learned about this event. Though she repeatedly warned herself to stay away from Feifei, she couldn’t resist coming. Fortunately, there were many curious onlookers outside the elite kindergarten’s fence, so she didn’t stand out.
Feng Yu’s car happened to stop right in front of Zhou Yue. The moment she saw Yan Songyu leading Feifei out, Zhou Yue immediately lowered her head, not daring to look further. But a sudden gust of wind blew off the headscarf covering Zhou Yue’s face, landing it right at Feifei’s feet.
Feifei picked up the headscarf and immediately spotted Zhou Yue covering her face.
Yan Songyu noticed too. Oh right, Zhou Yue’s face was disfigured—no wonder she’d covered most of it at the hospital last time.
She had indeed arranged for Zhou Yue’s protection from Wang Laoshan’s men—not out of saintly compassion, but simply because she too was a woman who had a daughter.
However, Zhou Yue had committed the unforgivable sin of switching daughters and attempted murder against her, so Yan Songyu didn’t want Zhou Yue to receive her mercy for free. Thus, she took away Zhou Yue’s most prized possession—her beauty.
Feng Yu had Zhao Qi bribe one of Wang Laoshan’s lackeys. During their visit to pressure Zhou Yue, amidst the chaos, they slashed Zhou Yue’s face.
A long centipede-like scar stretched from her earlobe to the corner of her mouth across Zhou Yue’s face. After stitching, her mouth became slightly crooked. Combined with her gloomy aura, the surrounding children were so frightened they buried their faces in their parents’ arms.
Even a child was frightened into crying, “Waaah~ Mommy, her mouth is so big—does she eat children?”
Zhou Yue covered her face, her eyes filled with terror. What should she do? Had she scared Feifei? The strange stares from those around made her feel as if needles were pricking her back. Flustered, she pushed through the crowd in a desperate attempt to flee.
“Auntie.”
A clear, sweet voice rang out behind her.